Category: Altman, Robert

Films directed by Robert Altman

Reel 90: At the Ballet

One of the tough things about films that are focused on a specific, rather niche topic is that the creators have to find a way to turn the audience into feeling as though they’re experts in the field without being such an information dump that they lose track of the story itself.

In some cases you have a character who’s somehow naive and asks questions, acting as a kind of audience surrogate. Other directors are more subtle, leaking out little bits of information at a time as the viewer needs it.

In the cases of today’s films, you’re mostly thrown into the deep end of the pool and need to suss it out yourself. Mostly, anyway. And the topic here is the ballet, specifically the machinations that go on backstage.

We open up with 1948’s THE RED SHOES, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. This is a directing team that handles films with a fantasy element quite adroitly, and while Sean and I disagree with each other about the handling of one segment of the film, it doesn’t dampen your enjoyment either way.

From 1948 we move to the 21st Century, for THE COMPANY, a 2003 film directed by Robert Altman. As usual for Altman, you’re dropped directly into the chaos but once you’ve acclimated to the pace, he tells a compelling story without actually having a lot of story to tell.

 

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next episode, Humphrey Bogart joins the Resistance. We begin with CASABLANCA, which we could have easily spent the entire episode reviewing. Fortunately for you we showed some restraint and moved on to TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, which takes a very different tack on the subject. Join us, won’t you?

Reel 75: The Western as Allegory

Webster’s (online) Dictionary defines allegory as “the expression by means of fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence.” How’s THAT for an eye-opener?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Wait, isn’t that a metaphor?” No. A metaphor, in its broadest sense, is a symbolic representation of a concept. So while something like “The ship plows through the ocean” is a metaphor, Aesop’s Fables would be an allegory.

Get it? Or have you dozed off already? Well, wake up, because we’ve got a couple of allegorical films for you, and we promise they’ll entertain you. But you knew that already because you’ve seen them and are fully prepared for the spoilers we discuss.

We’ll start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, along with several other actors that will have you saying “Yup, Altman film.” As usual, there’s often many, many things going on in the frame, but you never lose sight of the main action.

In Part 2, we jump to the year 2000 for The Claim, directed by Michael Winterbottom. On the surface, these films couldn’t be more different, and yet they hit many, many of the same notes. And there are specific plot points that are quite similar. Coincidence? Homage? Something else? We’ll leave that for you to decide.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Next time around we’ll be looking at another pair of films that have the same allegory going on, but using the Gangster genre instead. We begin with Thief (1981), directed by Michael Mann. From there we move forward only one year to 1982, and John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday. Join us, won’t you?

 

Reel 34: Epic Altman

In which we take nearly six hours of film and reduce it to about eleven minutes of synopses and and hour or so of scintillating discussion.

Robert Altman’s work had a lot of “trademarks” that delineated his films: overlapping dialogue, huge casts, multiple storylines and a way to subvert whatever genre he was working in. And in this episode we look at a pair of epic-length films which do nearly all of these, but there’s an interesting difference between the two.

In 1975’s Nashville, Altman’s multiple storylines all manage to converge on a single time and place. Then we go to 1993 and Short Cuts, where again all the stories take place in a single city, but the stories almost-not-quite intersect but still manage to remain on parallel tracks, even as the thing that ties them together is an outside force which affects each of them differently.

Sean and Claude have some great discussion in this one. Enjoy!

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

For Reel 35 we return to the world of Martin Scorsese, specifically his views on Christianity. We start with The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which is mostly remembered nowadays for the controversy it stirred up, but it’s really so much more. Then in the second half it’s 2016’s Silence, which has an interesting premise and an ending that will simultaneously depress you and give you hope. Join us, won’t you?